Not to know how to get teens cooking dinner?

It just feels like this thread was created to market meal subscription boxes... Obviously it's one way to get people to cook, but it certainly isn't necessary. Generations of people have learned to cook by cooking with their families or using cook books.
If they like a meal, get the ingredients, show them how to make it, ask them to make it themselves next time.
If the aim is for them to take on the responsibility of making dinner as a contribution to family life, then if they have no interest, just ask them to cook something specific everyone enjoys, make sure they know how and that's it.
Once they leave home it's up to them how much interest they have, but at least they'll be vaguely competent. But then cooking is not rocket science, anyone is capable of following a simple recipe.

We do gousto. They pick what they are happy to cook for us all. Started with helping them chop the ingredients, but now they tend to do everything themselves.
Ds (at uni) is often bemused by his house mates cooking skills.
Reading a recipe is a good life skill imo

Agree with others, a set night per week. Let them choose what they're doing. I wouldn't bother getting them to sort all ingredients yet... baby steps. My mum used to make me cook one meal a week and I always used to make the same thing 🙃 but it gave me cooking skills when my friends didn't have them!

Mine don't enjoy cooking and they're not particularly bothered about food. They dutifully eat everything we make for them, but rarely with enthusiasm. They would never seek out a recipe and if I ask them to suggest one, they just look at me blankly and shrug.

This is why I think a meal kit is a great idea - it gives them a jumping-off point.

Asking them to plan/shop is a bit much for 12 and 15.

Either decide what you want them to cook, give them the recipe and tell them they can make it on day X.

Or give them a student cook book, ask them to pick a recipe and then you add the ingredients to your weekly shop so everything is available to them on their agreed day.

I found those boxes great for me and my kids to cook together. You don’t have to have a lifetime subscription seven days a week. They can be really helpful for people starting out and there’s minimum waste. We have enough of their recipe cards now to use them without having to order anymore boxes. My son took some of the cards with him when he went away to his dad’s for a few days.

If they are on social media tell them to look for a dish that they want to cook. My DD just made some kind of Alfredo pasta that she had seen on TikTok lots of cooking stuff goes viral and it’s easy quick food that is great for kids starting to cook

Also tried to teach them some staples that they can put in the air fryer – we always have marinated chicken so DC just need to put that in the air fryer and prep some sides and salad, et cetera

I got my teen to add things to our online shopping list during COVID and to find a recipe to get a list of ingredients, check if we already have some, add what we don't have to the order. Then X day he's cooking for family. I overlooked the fact he tended to cook either Shepherds pie with a cheesy mash topping most weeks. We all like it so no problem. He lives in his own house now and cooks really lovely dishes and a wide variety. Last time he invited me over it was beef and leek stew with Herby dumplings cooked in a huge Dutch oven. It had red wine in it and I really enjoyed it. He told me it wasn't difficult. Large pack of chunks of beef, lightly coat with flour, chop up a leek and some carrots into thick pennies. Add a pack of chopped stew vegetables already prepared and a small bottle of wine, and beef stock. Cook slowly for 2 hours then top up with beef stock, add Herby dumplings and cook for another 45 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes. Pretty much idiot proof. Challenge them to a cook off.

I never cooked a family meal in my entire time at home (left at nineteen). Mine cook now and again if they want to but both do/did cooking at uni. I think a meal kit like Hello Fresh is a good way to go as both of mine enjoyed doing those.

DH couldn’t cook at all when I met him
but wanted to learn. He would pick a dish he liked and wanted to learn, I would teach him to cook it and then the next time he would attempt it on his own just asking me questions if he got stuck. He’s now a fairly decent cook!

I really don't think you need a meal box subscription to get anyone cooking.

How about tiktok? Both of my teens have seen recipes they like on there, we get the ingredients and off they go

Sorry but this is mad, teens boning fish and braising meat over several hours on a school night?
Maybe a small minority but this is the polar opposite of many of the subsequent suggestions of meal kits!

Everyone has always meal prepped with me from tiny using proper knives and equipment.

Then we meal plan for the week. Shop together. Everyone has to cook a meal a week. They get to choose what they're cooking.

To be honest it's the shopping that's the hardest to crack. If 3 peoples meals involve courgettes then 1 courgette isn't going to cut it.

DH is the worst for this because he's almost never shopped with me so has no idea of quantities needed for 8 people x 9 meals plus left overs for 1-3 x 5 days a week. Above all it's a massive amount of veg.

My daughter loves cooking and was responsible for cooking dinner at least one night a week. She wanted to. It wasn't even a 'chore' for her. She started when she was about 13.

She used to peruse the BBC Good Food website, find something she wanted to eat and then send me an ingredients list to pick up on the way home and she'd cook for me, her brother and herself. He also cooked once a week but wasn't as adventurous as her!

That might be an approach to take.

I don't think hello fresh is necessary or really a great way to learn cooking and meal planning from the start. I'd say start super simple with minimal planning required and work up to more complex recipes is a better option than have all the thinking done. What about just scrambled eggs on toast? All they need in is bread and eggs plus butter and any condiments? Could also be mushrooms on toast, rarebit. Maybe some grilled tomatoes alongside.

Make having the routine the focus, the recipe not a huge deal to start with as long as it's reasonably nutritious which the above all are. Get the habit formed then more confidence will start building.

I think you need to tell them (or pin them down and get them to decide) which night is theirs, otherwise they will lack the initiative. It's developmentally normal - the thinking and planning ahead bit kicks in later. Then have it be the same night each week for ease of remembering and so it fits in with any activities anyone does.

Do you meal plan at some point during the week? Do it at a time they are home, grab them when you sit down to do it and get them to do it with you. They can each choose the meal they will cook (if you want them to make the decision) or you can tell them what you want them to cook. I would get them to locate the recipe they will use as well - mark if it's in a book, or get them to send you a link over whatsapp if it's an online recipe.

That way you can add the ingredients to the shopping list and they don't get to their cooking day and suddenly decide to make something else.

Do a big visual reminder somewhere like if you write the meals up on a board add a name.

My DS who’s 13 started off heating up some basic things on the evening I’m out with the younger ones swimming. Just for himself initially so a pizza, chicken and chips, toasties, pesto pasta, scrambled eggs or omelette. Or starting off a freezer crap meal for me in the oven so it’s ready for when we’re home.
He can do other more complex things with supervision and we currently haven’t pushed that but happily have him help out when we’re cooking which I think really is a step not to be missed out.

we started out by teaching the basics (rice pasta potatos white sauce) when your dc age they then cooked together once a month (including planning and shopping).

now the youngest is 15 and they sometimes have to step in due to dh and my work committments.

The way I started with my dc was to get a meal that was 'theirs' so when we were having that they would be 'head cook' and I would be assistant. Over time the number of meals that were 'theirs' increased and I no longer needed to be around to help.

18yo ds now cooks about twice a week (and even does lots of veggies for me), 14 yo ds is more like once a fortnight (and I do the veggies).

I can't believe how much reliance there seems to be on here for expensive kits that come in a box. We really have become a nation of adults who can't plan/think for themselves. There's so many meals that can be thrown together from scratch on 30 mins max.
My DS started cooking with me, then progressed to cooking pre agreed dishes on his own. Now living in his own house on a limited budget, he is batch cooking and freezing. From being a reluctant cook, he developed a real interest in food and flavours. He developed his skills and ideas from watching YouTube videos over time. He can now churn out an interesting meal from whatever is in the cupboard/fridge.

Aahhh, it sounds like you’ve done a lot of the base work then.

Ours progressed to full meals just really naturally, but not till 16. And it wasn’t the food that I would cook or was in my recipe books, but food they were becoming interested in from insta/tik tok.

Beautiful, exotic looking salads, colourful egg creations, Mexican food.

The only meal they have inherited from me is a chicken roast dinner 😁 all of them can do it with their eyes closed.

We use Mindful Chef - if they help select the recipes they are more likely to choose which one they want to cook and then do it in my experience.

My tips would be to:

Get them to cook separately
If it says 20 mins prep assume 40
Try to just leave the kitchen and leave them to it unless they ask for help.
Accept they don't clean up as well as you would (surfaces might be clean but don't look at floor!)

Don’t forget to have fun with them!

putting expectations on them/being frustrated/making it a chore won’t help at all.

I spent years wishing I could leave them to it, but reminded myself to just enjoy the time with them. And overall it’s been lovely.

The DCs are now 18/17/16, confident cooks who enjoy creating meals. But it took years of natural evolution from them “helping” me. I would prep all the boring bits to keep them interested, give them just one isolated job at a time “you are whisking till it goes thick” “you are going to fry this for four minutes and don’t move it around”.

They really enjoyed it, partly cos it’s doing something with you rather than for you. Or maybe im a bit of a softie 😅